Participatory Forest Management (PFM) is used to describe systems in which communities (forest users) and Government services (Forest Services), work together to define rights of forest use, to develop ways of sharing management responsibilities, and to agree how to divide forest benefits. 

PFM refers to the legal empowerment of local communities to manage forest resources for, in the first instance, their sustained livelihoods, and in the second instance, conservation values. The process of PFM involves the legal transfer of resources (user rights to, and/or, ownership rights of) from the Government to communities. This transfer is enabled by, and dependent upon, a negotiated and documented Forest Management Agreement (FMA). The FMA is a legally binding contract between a defined community based institution (Forest Management Group) and the Government (represented by the Forest Services).